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Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques ... - Index of - Free

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Figure 12.5<br />

Examples: Two Typical Cases <strong>of</strong> <strong>Knowledge</strong> Assessment<br />

The <strong>Knowledge</strong> Assessment Program 193<br />

We show two typical cases <strong>of</strong> applying knowledge assessment to the Japanese companies.<br />

The first pattern is a typical case <strong>of</strong> R&D departments. They prefer to be more<br />

innovative. The second pattern is a typical case <strong>of</strong> operation units. It is important for<br />

them to share their experimental knowledge among districts <strong>and</strong> functions. (These<br />

cases do not correspond to a specific company.)<br />

Typical Case <strong>of</strong> R&D Department<br />

Ratio <strong>of</strong> knowledge work pattern for job<br />

The first case is the assessment <strong>of</strong> an R&D department. From the survey <strong>of</strong> the<br />

<strong>Knowledge</strong> Assets Model, we found that an R&D department tends to recognize<br />

that the most important capability to be leveraged in the future is to construct their<br />

own research concepts. Furthermore, they recognized that the following knowledge is<br />

very important: customer information <strong>and</strong> market trend, design proposal know-how,<br />

cutting-edge technology, etc. It implies that for promoting innovation, the social function<br />

<strong>of</strong> the technology should be considered, as well as technological advantages.<br />

However, under the present circumstances, only a few people can utilize the knowledge<br />

well.<br />

Why can such important knowledge not be utilized? The main reason can be found<br />

from the research <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Knowledge</strong> Work Pattern Model. The results <strong>of</strong> the survey<br />

revealed that more than 70% <strong>of</strong> the respondents are analyst-type workers who work<br />

creatively, but have low interaction with others. Less than 10% <strong>of</strong> the respondents are<br />

nomad-type workers who work autonomously <strong>and</strong> have high interaction with others.<br />

By comparing with the <strong>Knowledge</strong> Creating Process (SECI) Model <strong>of</strong> analyst-type<br />

workers <strong>and</strong> nomad-type workers, we found that the socialization activities (i.e., sharing<br />

tacit knowledge by visiting various places inside <strong>and</strong> outside the company) <strong>of</strong><br />

analyst-type workers are typically insufficient. By asking the place <strong>of</strong> acquiring important<br />

knowledge, it showed that the source <strong>of</strong> analyst-type workers’ knowledge is<br />

truly limited, such as asking their own group members or investigating on the Web.<br />

On the contrary, nomad-type workers like to get knowledge from various sources, for

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